OK, Firstly to declare a conflict of interest. We sell Robox printers etc... We are, apart from that, fully independent from Cel-Robox.

Our perspective on this is as a support provider (although not for Robox as they prefer to do this themselves). So I don't seek to take one side or the other but it is an independent opinion from our experiences.

It is not good that you have come away from this whole experience with a bad feeling. But we would like to say, remember that people are people and that it is very unlikely that any mistakes that you feel they have made are the result of some nefarious or underhanded attitude. Companies do not forego good customer support for a quick buck (although it does depend on the business model). So you have to assume that what response you did get was given with a desire to help. We are not involved so this is just an assumption based on human nature and our experience of business.

As to the question of whether they should have repaired it or told you to buy a new one. It's not really advisable to give advice to customers because they can come back at you - "you said I should do this and it didn't work" (for them). For example if they had advised you to buy a new head you may have discovered that you could have got the old one fixed for £60 and you may have been miffed (you wouldn't have been aware the O ring was going to fail). So this could have gone either way.

You have to remember that you own the machine, you are the decision maker, it's your responsibility. The manufacturer and seller have responsibilities, which in our experience they are happy to take on, but there is only so much responsibility they can shoulder, and I don't mean from a legal perspective but from a moral perspective.

So, with respect to the forum, I think that depends on how much a nuisance you were making of yourself. If you were trolling across all threads, regardless of their relevancy to your grievance, then yes it would probably be a good idea to ban you because then you are spoiling it all for everyone else. If you have your own thread then I don't see why they did it.

So I guess the question is how would you like this to end so that you came away satisfied, then ask yourself the question as to whether that would be a justifiable expectation. I include the last part as it is our experience that people's expectations for what would satisfy them can be sometimes unrealistic; "I want 10 new 3D printers and an all expenses paid trip to Las Vegas". I'm not saying your expectations are not justified by the way.

Customer support, to a large extent is about managing customer expectations. like everything you can't get it right all the time. If we were to have a take home message it would be that generally people are trying to do their best to help.

Anyway that's our four pennies worth.